City Says Voters Willing to Spend for Service

San Diego’s fiscally conservative voters, who last passed a general obligation bond in 1966 and who nearly defeated a Gann spending limit waiver sought in 1987, joined the rest of California in sending a message to their elected officials, City Council members said Wednesday.

That message, council members and Mayor Maureen O’Connor said Tuesday, is that voters are not necessarily dead-set against propositions that result in better municipal or statewide services.

San Diegans on Tuesday agreed to extend a waiver on the Gann spending limit, by a 59.8% to 40.2% margin, surprising even staunch supporters of the measure. Without the waiver, the council would have been forced to trim spending by an estimated $35 million to $40 million during the fiscal year that begins July 1, 1991.

A $25-million bond issue for a police and fire communications system that required a two-thirds majority garnered a strong 68.3% of the vote. Police and fire officials have been seeking the new facility for several years.

More than 60% of San Diegans who cast ballots voted against a proposition that would have increased the size of the City Council by creating two new districts. Proponents of the measure acknowledged that voters characterized the proposal as one that would increase the cost of government by $2 million during the first two years.

Tuesday’s vote reinforced O’Connor’s contention that San Diegans, not council members, should determine when new revenue is needed, mayoral spokesman Paul Downey said Wednesday.

Voter support for the bond issue and the Gann waiver “showed that the voters recognize that the city has some financial problems,” Downey said. “Her position has been that, if you need something, you go to the voters and make your case.” The two successful votes proved that, “if it’s something specific, you have a good chance of getting it,” Downey said.

“The message I’m getting is that people are understanding that you’ve got to spend some money if you’re going to solve problems, and there are problems to be solved,” Councilman Ron Roberts said. “It was really quite a day (in California) when you look at it.”

Tuesday’s vote “clearly signals that people want to . . . (solve) some of the problems,” Roberts said. “But that doesn’t mean to open the checkbook and spend like maniacs.”

Councilman Bruce Henderson believes that the election results, particularly the failure of Proposition B, the council expansion measure, shows that voters are capable of determining when the city should increase the cost of government. Henderson believes the defeat underscores the need to place new programs on the ballot, a spokesman for the councilman said.

Proponents of Proposition B called the proposal necessary to improve representation among San Diego’s increasingly diverse population.

The ballot results prove that San Diegans will give issues a fair hearing “when taxes are tied to a specific purpose,” said Jim Ryan, executive director of the San Diego County Taxpayers Assn. The organization supported the Gann waiver extension, but argued that the police and fire communications system should have been included in the council’s upcoming budget.

Proposition 13, passed in 1978, forced the council to seek voter approval for new taxes, and “does cause lurching from one need to another . . . which does sort of hamstring the policy-makers,” Ryan said. “But that was the intent of Proposition 13, to make the city go out to the voters” on issues that would raise taxes.

Still, Tuesday’s passage of the Gann waiver extension and the police and fire bond issue does not signal the end of Proposition 13, if only because of the City Council’s yearly budget battle, which “has been a constant drumbeat of dire and dismal forecasts,” Ryan said.

The “council has to be open with people. . . . You can only cry wolf so often,” he said. “Next year they can’t come back and say that things are still deteriorating.”

City Manager John Lockwood on Wednesday declined to discuss the political ramifications of Tuesday’s vote, but he did offer an explanation for the surprisingly strong show of support received by the Gann waiver and the bond issue.

“In the last three years, there has been a deterioration of services--statewide, not just in San Diego,” he said. “Things are falling apart, and people responded to that.”

Lockwood credited “enlightened voters” for realizing that, in some cases, further cuts in services are not possible, because “we’re down to the bone now.”

Statewide, “People are noticing that the level of service just isn’t adequate,” he said.